Wild, Wild Card Night leaves Giants being Schimpf’d

All the main NL Wild card teams were leading in the 9th inning last night. Only one of them was unable to bring home the victory. The Giants were Schimpf’d in the 9th inning when Schimpf blasted a three-run home run after Bochy pulled right-hander Hunter Strickland for left-hander Steven Okert to face the lefty hitting Schimpf. The Giants were leading 4 – 1 entering the 9th and left it trailing 6 – 4. Schimpf has now hit a ridiculous 19 home runs in only 236 at bats. If Corey Seager, Story, and Diaz weren’t rookie shortstops, Schimpf might have gotten a few ROY votes himself.

The Mets had their own heroics, but they did it the hard way. The Mets led going into the bottom of the 9th but the Nationals scored two runs to tie the game. The Mets needed to score in the 10th to bring home the victory and close within a 1/ 2 game of the Giants. T.J. Rivera to rescue as made his first major league home run a memorable one, taking National ace closer Mark Melancon deep to give the Mets a 4 – 3 lead and eventual victory. It was the 3rd hit of the night for the rookie Rivera who is only playing because Todd Walker is out for the season.

The Cardinals won 4 – 2 behind a wild Al Reyes who threw four shutout inning in relief of Jamie Garcia. Reyes walked six in those four innings but managed to keep the Cubs off the scoreboard. Brandon Moss broke out of a slump to hit his 26th home run which provided the winning margin. A Diaz fresh off the DL hit a home run in his first at-bat.

The Marlins and Pirates also won but they need a lot more victories to get much space here. The Pirates scored three runs in the top of the 9th to secure their unlikely victory but last gasps won’t do much for a team who has lost seven of their last ten.